A Faceless Enemy
by Fessran
Summary: Young warrior Sandfoot of OceanClan was born with a disability, one that limits her from the responsibilities a normal warrior cat holds; and limits her from finding friends. When she accidentally overhears a plot against her leader, she decides that this is what she needs to find friends at last- become a hero and stop the cats preparing to overthrow her Clan leader.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

The sand flies where my paws touch, light as the down feathers of a seagull. My claws are sheathed, my ears are flattened and the wind whips at my whiskers.

My name is Sandfoot. I am a young warrior barely out of apprenticeship. My Clan is OceanClan, and unlike those snotty forest warriors we actually know the proper names of nature. The 'sun-drown place' is the sea where I live. The thunderpath is the road, the monsters the cars. And their accent! Strange, and hard to understand. I have no clue how they talk to one another! We've exchanged words with them often enough to know their almost foreign language.

The ocean is loud in front of me. I slow down and skid to a halt in the wet dirt, tossing up the tiny tan ricebits. I watch it, almost purring at the beauty of the gray tide.

Today it's at a low tide. I'm far out, but not quite as far as this morning when I went to admire the tidepools and possibly find a meal. That's what we OceanClan cats eat- tidepool creatures and seabirds, if we're fast enough on the sand to catch them. Luckily we're fast, faster than the WindClan cats. No cat can beat us on the sand.

Well, no cat can beat most of us. There's something wrong with me that makes it hard to run, or walk far and fast.

I blink. The ocean has gotten faster. The tiny spot of sand I'm on it melting away as the water rushes by. I hiss and prepare to leap off the space but my paw slips behind me.

I yelp, but I quickly shake my paw clear of water and jump clumsily, splashing up salty water.

"Sandfoooooot!" comes an achingly annoying voice. Of course my brother Poolpaw has to talk to me now, at this moment of feeling like the world is in my paws.

I keep my eye on the waves as I turn to him. That's the first rule every kit learns before he leaves the nursery, however far we are away from the ocean; never turn your back on the waves. Rogue waves come out of nowhere, scoop you up and you're never seen again. Although we're OceanClan, we might as well be called SandClan because we don't swim. We know how to, but it's too cold for anycat.

The fog is concealing him. I can only see his outline and then he bursts out, rumpled white fur and bright blue eyes. He draws in a deep intake of breath, panting, and then gasps out, "Sandfoot! I was wondering where you are! Mother and Father want you home, and so does Urchinclaw to look at your paw."

I cuff him around the ears and he sticks his tongue out at me.

"Whatever. I don't have to come when they call anymore. I'm a warrior now!"

He snorts and ducks so my paw falls to the ground. The water soaks my pad immediately and I draw it up, wondering why in the world the tide's coming in so fast.

The waves are normal, and the seagulls and herons are calling, so it must just be a fast-rising tide. When all goes quiet, that's a very bad sign and we usually evacuate the camp before a tsunami comes.

"You're not a warrior in their eyes! You're still their little kit. Now come on, before mom gets mad!"

He turns, but stops and whips back around. Uh oh, he's got his signature grin smug on his face and his eyes are getting that sparkly look that they get when he's got a dare on the tip of his tongue.

"I dare you to hop from sand pile to sand pile without getting your paws wet!" he meows. I sigh and shake my paws out; out of habit, of course, it's not too cold.

My hind paw is starting to cramp, and so is my side. I groan. I can't hop around like this.

"No, I can't. I'll be back at camp."

"You're no fun," Poolpaw mutters, but I can see in his eyes he's worried about me. He follows me as I turn and pad away, so I know for sure that he wants me to get home all right.

I hiss in surprise as I come to where I usually walk back. The sand has been cleared away and there's a wide shoulder-length channel of water calmly drifting past.

Oh great. Here I am, barely able to walk from the cramps and chilly from leaping around, and now there's a giant pool of water that I have to quickly walk across.

My ears, which were already flattened to keep my neck warm, press down even farther. I can feel my eyes starting to narrow and my claws unsheathing.

StarClan help me from getting angry here in front of my little brother.

I turn to check on the sea and him. He's doing fine, if a little wet and shivering.

I let out a tiny mew. We have thirty seconds until hypothermia sets in. If we can get across without stopping out of fear, falling, or just freezing up from the cold we will be fine.

"Stay behind me," I tell him as I step into the water.

It's freezing cold. The icy pinpricks sink into my fur and skin and chill me to the bone. I quickly set off, and it gets deeper as I go. I can hear him crying out behind me when he steps on sharp rocks and crab bits left over from a seagull food fest, but I ignore him and keep going.

It seems like forever.

We've reached the middle and it dips down extremely fast. I start swimming clumsily because I can't walk across this. My brother slips in behind me and I can hear and feel his paws churning icicle water.

We can walk again. I'm relieved to plant my paws back down again on the sand, even if it's barely firm. I can hear Poolpaw sending a quiet prayer to StarClan to thank them for our safety, but I know it wasn't StarClan that got us across. It was us.

My fur doesn't shed water like it does in fresh water. It's too thick for that. My brother has the thinnest fur I've ever seen.

Unlike him, my fur is a drizzly caramel color and my eyes are a sea green/blue. Having thick fur is fantastic when you live by the ocean, but no fun when you have to lick it dry and lick the sand out of it.

"Thank you, StarClan," Poolpaw finishes, falling silent as we slowly trot across the loose sand to home.

**New story, woot woot! I need to finish the others, jeez...**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Let me have a look at your paw," Urchinclaw called cheerfully from the medicine cat den as I limp towards her. I sit down in front of her, wincing, but as she slips into the den to find some herbs to wrap my hind paw I can hear the snickers of my fellow young warrior behind me.

"Hey, Limpfoot!" Heronheart, a pretty reddish brown she-cat, calls to me. "How's your paw doing?"

"Fine, actually," I snap back. Gingershell, her tawny sister, laughs at me, fluffs out her fur, and pads away with her head held high. Heronheart follows her.

Their three brothers, Snailstep, Fogcry and Moluskwhisker, continue on with their sisters' taunting.

"You might as well have Urchinclaw cut off that useless paw, Limpfoot!"

"At least my paws aren't as slimy as yours Snailslime!" I reply. He glares at me.

"I feel sorry for you!" Moluskwhisker yowls, "The horror of your poor paws! Crooked and stiff as wood chopped from a human's tree!"

I try to ignore him. The comment stings. Moluskwhisker is a mousebrain, and his brother Snailstep and sisters are no better. But their youngest brother Fogcry never joins in the teasing. Honestly, since he doesn't make any move to stop his siblings from snapping at me like birds, I've labeled him just as bad as the rest.

Like usual, Fogcry's just watching me, his amber eyes intently burning into mine. His black fur is bristling, although I can't tell why. I can never tell why he does anything.

Eventually, after ignoring them for a while they go away, for which I am grateful. Fogcry takes a bit longer to leave after them, but he reluctantly gets up and trails after Snailstep. I watch him with interest. Urchinclaw comes out of her den with wrapping for my paw and herbs to ease the cramps.

You might have guessed what's wrong with me. For some reason my hind paw doesn't operate right. It cramps after a little while and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I guess that earned me my name of Limpfoot, and sometimes Limpwalker. Deadfoot, Uselesspaw, any sort of stupid name you can think of, although Limpfoot is most used.

I sit still while she wraps my paw. The camp is silent. I know why. With the fog so low, it's too cold outside for anyone to be out. Lucky for me, her den is an overhanging rock with dried seaweed hanging in front of the entrance. The only reason the StarClan-Forsaken Siblings can see me is because the seaweed has shriveled to a crisp in the few days of sunlight.

I glance over at Urchenclaw. Her black, almost purplish fur is permanently spiked and her eyes are pale orange like a seastar. She's concentrating very hard on her work and obviously doesn't see me staring at her. Urchenclaw rarely leaves her den, but it's not because she wants to. She lost the use of her hind legs when she was a kit running off from the nursery to explore. Her littermate Drizzlekit had went with her. The twins had left the cover of the dead trees and rocks to see the ocean- but only one came back after a rogue wave carried them off into the ocean. Hitting rocks and scraping against coral as the two kits went, Drizzlekit was suspected to drown and Urchenclaw- then Urchenkit- broke both of her hind legs and twisted them so bad that she could never walk again. Driftstar, her mother, had found only one of her kits.

It was a tragic story, but sometimes I wished that I had an excuse as to why my paw's so mangled. I was just born this way, and even though it looks normal it rises before my main paw pad. Where it rises there is no support except for when I'm in loose sand, which gives it great relief.

I sink down to my belly. Although I'd never admit it, I'm exhausted to the tip of my tail. Urchinclaw comes out once or twice more, but eventually I sink into a steady sleep.

**Short, sorry... **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Sandfoot! Patrol!"

I stumble out of the medicine cat den, yawning. This early? I shake myself and trot the rest of the way, still slightly in a daze but more awake. My paw doesn't hurt anymore, thank StarClan, but it's still wrapped. I'll have to take it easy.

Turtlesnap, our deputy, gives me a disapproving look. Judging by the sun, I'm late.

"You can go on border patrol with Ripplemask and Eelstripe," he says. I sigh, padding over to take my position by their side. Ripplemask, a black tomcat with a white raccoon-like mask, glares at Turtlesnap with dark pine needle eyes, but the deputy doesn't see it. I'm not so keen on spending a day with the senior warrior either. We don't get along. At all. Surprising, actually, being father and daughter.

"Come on," Eelstripe says gruffly, spinning around and stalking away. "I'm leading."

"Where's Poolpaw?" I meow to Eelstripe. My brother is his apprentice, and usually mentors and apprentices go out on patrol together.

"He's caught a cold," the calico tomcat says, flicking dew off of his ears. "Had to swim back through some ocean water, that one. Coralpaw was complaining about his coughing all night long, so I sent him to Urchinclaw this morning."

Privately, I think that Eelstripe is using good-natured Coralpaw as his excuse to sending Poolpaw off. The two toms never got along.

He sounds irritated, and I can guess why. Nobody wants to be with my father and I on patrol. We just argue the time away.

He pads out through the exit.

I follow him, but Ripplemask shoves his way to the front. I spit crossly, but follow.

"How's Larkkit and Raineyes doing?" I ask, pretending to care. Larkkit is my half brother, so I have a right to know, but Raineyes is an entirely different story.

My father was unfaithful to my mother, Crabfrost, after my brother was born. He had kits with a pretty yellow tabby named Raineyes with distinct ash gray eyes, producing Larkkit. My mother has taken a dislike to him, and so have I, but Poolpaw was always his favorite kit anyway.

"Just fine," he says, perking up a bit. He's too stupid to realize that I don't care. "Better than ever, actually. Larkkit is growing so fast! He'll be an apprentice soon."

He purrs wistfully. "Maybe I'll mentor him."

I shoot him a glare. "Coralpaw's your apprentice. You can't just give her away for another cat to mentor!"

"Why shouldn't I?" Ripplemask growls. "Coralpaw can do with another cat to mentor her for the rest of her moons! It will be good experience for her."

"She's got _moons _left! You can't abandon your own apprentice!" I yowl. Eelstripe looks over his shoulder. The few birds that were out stop singing. The forest is silent.

I scuff the dirt with my paw, embarrassed. At least the Clan hasn't heard.

"I am your father, and a senior warrior. Treat me with respect."

I bite back a retort and give the ground a cold stare. I knew I shouldn't have agreed to go on this patrol. Turtlesnap knew this was going to happen.

**Aaaand her father is a jerk. How much worse can her family life be? You'll see xD**


End file.
